Michele Archives

July 3, 2005

Michele: Blood Red Summer

Scratch scratch scratch.

She clawed at the wall, mindlessly engraving lines in its worn surface.

Blood caked on her fingertips like crusted paint. She thought of spilled ketchup and food coloring and all the other things she thought the mess on the kitchen floor was before she remembered - it was her mother’s blood, all sticky and gummy and staining her sneakers; it was her mother laying there, scratching her fingers against the kitchen wall, trying to pull herself up.

She imitated her mother’s movements, right down to the death twitch at the end. Then she started again.

“Well, sort of. But with more impact. We’ve got to be able to see results right away....Oh, SNAP!” He smiled devishly. “Let’s make the Seven Deadly Sins actually deadly! Immediate death. No more long term ramifications.”

Shouts of “Hell yes” “Woohoo!” and “Amen” followed. Zeus banged the gavel, put the law into order, and turned the World Monitor dial to Los Angeles.

July 8, 2005

Michele: Lullabies to Paralyze

They’re experiments; hybrid infants born of man, animal, insects. Like those children’s puzzles where you move pieces around to create weird animals - an alligator with a chicken’s legs and a bumblebee’s body. That’s what these “children” were.

They look like real babies. We thought we bred superkids, children who look normal but have a bull’s strength or a fly’s vision. Useful children, for a change.

Alas, they were born with poison stingers in their fingers. One little bastard stung me.

Another wasted batch destined for the brain-scramblers and meaningless lives as drones.

July 9, 2005

Michele: I Am Doll Parts

Grace’s father’s last act before he was shot full of holes by a SWAT team was to lay the motel key down on the ground. That’s how they found her, curled up in a dirty blanket , holding the weeks old "Missing" poster of her mother, and screaming “Daliwali, Daliwaliiiii!!”

The chief found the doll under the bed. It was swathed in the remnants of a wedding gown, and its face seemed almost familiar. His stomach flipped and lurched as he glanced at the poster in the kid’s hands.

July 10, 2005

Michele: Catcher Faerie

My name is Pretat and I am a catcher faerie.

Every few months a faerie - most often a child - will escape through the portal. Child faeries are naturally curious and it’s understandable why they go. Who doesn’t want to see how humans live and work and play?

But we must not mingle. It is dangerous to try to mix among the humans. They are unpredictable and prone to violence and things of that nature. So it is my job to go through the portal and fetch the foolish ones.